they did it with greece and the fiscal compact and the uk v vetoing the agreements. you can put it back together again. but there's an enormous amount of damage, a lack of credibility and a feeling of lack of investor confidence that's taken place during that process. and to your very point, let's look at this for a second. we have the fiscal cliff. you then have the debt ceiling. don't forget the debt ceiling. then you go back to the middle of 2013. by the time you get to it, you're back to a budget impass once again. so you're right, it's perpetual cliffs and falls and slowdowns. >> that just is not very heartening, my friend. so why is the u.s. stock market having one of the best years, one of the ten best years ever? >> that's an easy one. firstly, very low. 2008, look at the graph. and it's gone like that all the way down and it's come back up again and equities remain cheap. bonds weren't doing that much. it was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of certain special situations. but don't be fooled. there's an element of scotch missed about this. the first w